Having been through some serious stuff in my life, that is why I am very open minded. One thing I have kept in mind during the worst of the bad times is that most people who did something towards the common good, have suffered in some way or the other. eMTE has a good point how what appears on the surface, what shows in the news, is different from how the common person may think. One thing I can say about public transport, at least here in the US, is that if you keep your ears open you start getting a good understanding of what's going on in your town, of the lives of the lower-middle class that makes up the bulk of our nation.

Looking back at the abuses in those group homes, I am not so sure it really is hate, as sometimes I think it is a sort of mentality, a caveman like instinct to push around and harm those who are considered weaker. Way I see it, for all our technologies and philosophy, humanity is still pretty primative in its thinking.

Without trains America Stops- Support Amtrak

Old trains never die. They just sit in ruin and wait until the day they are taken in by a skilled craftsman and rebuilt to their former glory.

Everytime I visit Curly's World (and this is becoming increasingly rare as it is a dead site or wreck-site how I prefer to call it, because even those deep ocean shipwrecks are inhabited by various organisms - thus are alive) this message attacks my eyesight:

"Marathon: Aleph One added"

It's getting sort of engraved in my brain.

"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)

Indeed, it's kind of sad that this site is pretty much done, there's a lot of members on here I never met in real life, but because they were around for many of the important events of the last 10 years of my life (Or thereabouts) I feel I can honestly call friends.

Without trains America Stops- Support Amtrak

Old trains never die. They just sit in ruin and wait until the day they are taken in by a skilled craftsman and rebuilt to their former glory.

I just noticed that the layout in my profile picture was from no later than 2007, as the layout in the picture was dismantled that year when I moved to a nicer apartment. I still have that old caboose (It is a pre-WWII model) and even the whistle post (The sign with the letter W, which tells an engineer he needs to sound the train's whistle or horn for an upcoming railroad crossing) I still have too. Trees and fence I probably still have, as I tend to reuse everything when I build a new railroad. The caboose got a major overhaul last year though, the roof has been repaired and repainted, the ladders and end handrails repaired, and it rolls much nicer now.

Without trains America Stops- Support Amtrak

Old trains never die. They just sit in ruin and wait until the day they are taken in by a skilled craftsman and rebuilt to their former glory.

The BBS had a good run, the phpBB boards had a good run, but now that the Internet blew large the people who posted on forums have moevd to closed communities while everyone else went to more public social media sites.

Yeah, this forum created a group of friends but in the current climate, can a forum like this support those friendships? Few want to talk about their lives as openly on public forums in 2018 as they did a decade ago.

It's a shame, really.

I'm at the airport, going for a work trip and so far I haven't seen anyone else in my group. Oh wait, now I finally saw one. Yay!

Do you has what it takes to join the Homestarmy? The guts? The determination? The five bucks? Join today!

It's just, I've developed this healthy (to me) obsession that Internet is Internet and life is life.

The obsession is not based on some sense of dark foreboding. Most MALES I met thanks to Internet I don't want to meet again and I avoid them and most FEMALES I met thanks to Internet are either stupid or not sufficiently attractive.

Now this may sound harsh, but I really do believe that one might want to meet a completely unknown person only for two reasons - intellectual friendship or sex. That's why I divided into males and females.

Another thing is that "friend" is not really what people associate with the word. Nowadays, with internet claiming social lives of many, it's easy to believe that friend is a person who "understoods" you as a freak, gay, artist, disabled person etc. etc. but it's not so easy. Emotional bonding is not created on words exchange basis (Internet, whatever you might want to say is just written words and more written words, nothing else), but with pure scientific physics and chemistry. You spend your rl-time with someone and you become friends with him. Or enemies. Here, it's just Ersatz.

So, even if I had these delirious visions of me meeting Zyx on an uninhabited Pacific Ocean Island, staying together for one week and clashing ferociously on philosophical issues, the illusion waned. Life is not about ideological agitation, it's about everyday issues. In real life you must eat, you must fight for ladder hierarchy, you must earn money, you must experience physical pain, illnesses etc. It's not like we would try to kill each other like in computer games with bloody machete in one's head, it's like we would quickly lose interest in another person. The tall financially-established Finn would quickly try to overpower the short Martin Freeman-type Polish shop clerk. Game would be over, nothing would be gained, except confirmation that things are just like they are for kazillions of years. Internet simplifies things, and not in a good way. Kittens are not lions.

On another note, why don't we discuss what I have just written on another forum. It's sort of memento, but also my future grave inscription. ^^

The question was, why do we still play computer games:

"The answer would vary, depending on period.

When I was a kid, I played video games pretty much only because I had been exposed to them. When you're a kid you don't think, you just swallow whatever world offers you.

Then somewhere at the turn of centuries I've discovered internet and abandonware, this started my second wave of interest in games. I was amazed how many of the games I havent discovered. For various reasons, primary being that when I was a kid original games have not been available in Poland, it was pure piracy. So you could play only what was pirated by those of your friends who had access to older friends etc. Not to mention that I lived in a small forest village. There really wasn't any legal market, with advertisements, shops etc. Your friend was coming to you with Another World copied from another source and you had it. Now, abandonware was - and technically is - piracy too, but I still didn't care. I was exposed to so many more games!

Now, I am playing computer games (only retro!) for - it can sound odd - consolation. With my deteriorating physical and mental health, perpetually unstable relationship situation and human culture (understood as games, movies, books, music) turning into an indegistible mix of manipulation, violence, depression and repetition I've discovered that retro games is one of the few things I like within all this mess. They put me in good mood. Since I'm too old to feel unwell for no particular reason - I play retro games when I have free time. Together with running, mountain hiking and other pleasurable things. Wink

So, the bottom line is - I play games for practical reasons. There's no new discoveries here, no outbursts of ecstasy. Retro games sort of settled, inhabited me, like moss grows on rocks. I like them and they like me, so we're going to spend the rest of our Earthly free time together."

Like moss grows on rocks, well, I am still capable of delivering interesting blatant metaphors which are actually sincere and true. Yay!

"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)

The BBS had a good run, the phpBB boards had a good run, but now that the Internet blew large the people who posted on forums have moevd to closed communities while everyone else went to more public social media sites.

Yeah, this forum created a group of friends but in the current climate, can a forum like this support those friendships? Few want to talk about their lives as openly on public forums in 2018 as they did a decade ago.

It's a shame, really.

I'm at the airport, going for a work trip and so far I haven't seen anyone else in my group. Oh wait, now I finally saw one. Yay!

Forums are still a very used medium as long as it has a topic to be centered around (a game, a hobby and such). I don't think its the medium, but rather the content. For me, freeware and open source games became less relevant when you started being able to buy commercial games for next to nothing, on sales, giveaways and such.

Now, I am playing computer games (only retro!) for - it can sound odd - consolation. With my deteriorating physical and mental health, perpetually unstable relationship situation and human culture (understood as games, movies, books, music) turning into an indegistible mix of manipulation, violence, depression and repetition I've discovered that retro games is one of the few things I like within all this mess. They put me in good mood. Since I'm too old to feel unwell for no particular reason - I play retro games when I have free time. Together with running, mountain hiking and other pleasurable things. Wink

Forums are still a very used medium as long as it has a topic to be centered around (a game, a hobby and such).

Yeah, but I think they are now very much consolidated. You talk about games, you go to Neogaf/resetera, you talk about board games you got BGG... the age of small boards is pretty much gone, except we're seeing a small resurgence through Discord.

The downfall of this forum was life and digital distribution platforms like Steam. Games are not anymore scattered around on personal websites but on platforms like itch.io, Steam and such.

Internet was supposed to democratize the media, yet we see consolidation that was never before possible... =)

Do you has what it takes to join the Homestarmy? The guts? The determination? The five bucks? Join today!

Forums have become dedicated. Now, one might think that forums focused on retro or free games in our times were dedicated from the start, but it's not true. We've been rediscovering our old emotions via new means of cognition and interlocution. So it was something new. Now, when these new means went slightly off course, it's no longer fun.

Only true mad obsessed fans of certain hobbies will remain active in www, in my opinion. After more than certain Facebook's demise which has become the most unpleasant place in Internet and not only, web will slowly but steadily divide into bubbles, just like Earth divided into countries, with people spending time only with those they know from rl, share interests or at least feel like talking to online for personal reasons. Then the law will follow and intervene.

There will be little place for me, an individualist by heart, a hobo, a trickster, a scapegoat. Everything will be formatted, tailored and governed. How to govern a person who has become a box of chocolates even for himself?

What the modern powers that be don't know (old powers that be couldn't understand that either), all the formatting makes us, the outlaws, only stronger.

"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)

The BBS had a good run, the phpBB boards had a good run, but now that the Internet blew large the people who posted on forums have moevd to closed communities while everyone else went to more public social media sites.

Forums are still a very used medium as long as it has a topic to be centered around (a game, a hobby and such). I don't think its the medium, but rather the content. For me, freeware and open source games became less relevant when you started being able to buy commercial games for next to nothing, on sales, giveaways and such.

Forums have become dedicated. Now, one might think that forums focused on retro or free games in our times were dedicated from the start, but it's not true. We've been rediscovering our old emotions via new means of cognition and interlocution. So it was something new. Now, when these new means went slightly off course, it's no longer fun.

Most people in past came to a forum in search of an interest / past hobby (eg a retro game that they used to play / the exciting discovery of more games that they never tried). After that they moved on talking on other topics / interest although they might not retain that first interest that brought them there.

It's more with the changing times and what the next generation is exposed to. The students, young adults and retirees have more time.
For the working adults, time is not enough. Some have increased commitment and responsibilities to their family and workload is heavier.
For me, I have to commute 3 hours a day to & from work. After a shower and dinner, I have little time except for watch some TV and read some news. When I work overtime, it's maybe straight to bed without leisure. During weekends, it's to catchup with need to do things and some want to do things.

For the new generation, their exposure to the media and what their peers do are different. These days are more casual gamers playing cheap and readily available games on handphones. Other children / young adults (if they have the means and can afford) will indulge on hard core gaming by going to digital distribution platforms or buy commercial games. Internet cafes though available are not the "in thing" as in the past. Most people are focus on texting & sharing on Whatapp & WeChat while some still have Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.

Companies ride on the retro trend (60s,70s,80s,90s) as the children became adults and have purchasing power and would be nostalgic about the things they use to like. They bring back old games and movies. Some do remakes old games and movies to make it attractive to the new generation as well. Not all are successful in pleasing both the older generation and newer generation (i.e. retain good story plot and feel of characters for retro fans and yet modern to attract new young fans).

The challenges are divided into 2 categories:
- introduce and attractive the new generation (with different interest) to join forums
- interest back the older generation who have limit time and new hobbies / commitments

JKSM wrote:The challenges are divided into 2 categories:
- introduce and attractive the new generation (with different interest) to join forums
- interest back the older generation who have limit time and new hobbies / commitments

The answer to both challenges is very simple, however still available to only few enlightened ones: humankind's annihilation.

Human culture has reached its end, but the end will not be abrupt, it will be more like a boiling torture. More and more people will decide to not have kids, more and more people will fall into loneliness, narcissism and depression, more and more people will lose metaphysical belief in any kind of goal, common sense or even regular everyday behaviour (see: mass shootings - common entertainment in 2050). The recent surge of various rightist -isms proves contrary at first, but it's just a swan song. Last resort. Death is imminent.

NWO boys, if there are any and if there will ever be any of those possbly existing ones adventurous enough, should decide to choose one who will press the red button and become the Earth's hero. Of course, nobody will know that the one who finished all this is The Hero, however we the people have means of advertising our dubious acts Universe-wide, so the next population of chimpanzees after millions of years will discover that, like, eMTe was the Hero, who politically influenced etc. etc.

It's a written fantasy of course; neither Trump, nor Kim, nor Zuckerberg, nor even Zyx [future prime minister of Finland] or eMTe [future master of physical world] are adventurous enough. Civilisation will die slowly and with moderate pains, with some people fighting pro-something, some against something, still believing in this and that. But it's the end. The war of unimportant people with other unimportant people for unimportant issues.

Three things I'd really love to learn before The End is the answer to my sunny meadow dilemma, to what is a compiler, and to the question what (anthropologically, linguistically, politically) killed irony in internet times.

Maybe next generation of chimpanzees...

---

I can't answer normally, can I?

"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)

Sounds neat.
I haven't had a vacation in a LONG time!!
But I have been making a Pen and Paper Puzzle Generator, so when I do eventually take a break, I have something to do when laying sunbathing, in a chair, by the pool.

Glad to hear you had a fun trip, Zyx. It just so happens that I visited Washington for the first time earlier this year, so I know there's a lot to see there.

Glad to hear that you're still coming up with gaming projects, Jayenkai! That FoldAPuzz thing looks awesome! I love little logic puzzles like that. (It even has Kakuro! Woot!) Come to think of it, I should recommend it to my dad; he's kind of been into printing out puzzles he finds on the internet lately, so something like this would be right up his alley.

What did I even do in the past year? It feels like it's gone by in a flash. I'm unemployed at the moment, which is a bit worrying, but I'm still hopeful that I'll find something in the coming new year. (Hopefully, before my money runs out) Other than that, I've been finding myself spending a fair bit of time with a new hobby...

This probably sounds silly, but I'm really into a Visual Novel called "Doki Doki Literature Club" lately. (Not normally the kind of thing I would play, but it was free and came highly recommended) It has a silly, cutesy title, but it's sort of a deconstructionist parody of visual novels in general and dating simulators in particular. It's very well written with interesting characters and has some interesting plot twists that I found very engaging and I found myself getting involved with the modding community. It turns out it's really easy to adapt and modify and I've been making my own stories based on it. It deals pretty heavily with difficult topics like depression, suicide, self-harm, and domestic abuse, and I'm finding it rather cathartic to write about those topics in fiction. I made a simple mod for it several months ago that got decent reactions to it, and ever since, I've been working on a much more ambitious modding project that will use new art and music and stuff, that I'm hoping to release in the new year.

@ZYX Model trains and Christmas are still a big thing in the US. While the idea of a train under a Christmas tree started in Germany, it really took off in the US. Every year I get more and more repair work, old trains brought to me for repair in time for Christmas.

Without trains America Stops- Support Amtrak

Old trains never die. They just sit in ruin and wait until the day they are taken in by a skilled craftsman and rebuilt to their former glory.